This is basically two flashbacks. One from Shawn's childhood (which we haven't seen on the show in a long time) and one just after "Not Even Close Encounters" hence the title of the story.

Santa Barbara: 1990

A young Shawn Spencer sits outside his house on a warm, dark night in the late summer California weather. In his hands are binoculars, which he is looking through out at the ocean across from the house.

Henry walks out, trying to find his son. Eventually, he sees the young Spencer on the roof, looking through the binoculars.

“Shawn! Get down from there!” Henry cried.

Shawn looked down, “No! I’m watching for aliens!”

Henry stood for a beat, then began to stomp toward the corner of the house Shawn was perched on.

As the car rounded a corner, two people peeked out from behind a building and glanced at each other.

“Do you think we were seen?” the female asked.

The male shook his head, “No. We had the cover of these abandoned dwellings. Come, we must create lives for ourselves and get some clothes. It is custom for us to wear clothes.”

The female looked down at her body, “These bodies are strange. What does a human woman need with these?” She pointed to her chest.

“I believe it is nourishment for a newborn human. Come, we must find suitable clothing,” the male said.

“How long are we to be here?” the female asked as they snuck around to a laundry mat nearby.

“We don’t leave until we complete our study on human behavior. Especially their belief systems on what they consider supernatural phenomenon. Humans with psychic abilities are the top of our list,” he said.

“Psychic? Humans have that capability?” she asked.

“They claim to, some of them. Come on, Suina, let’s go. We have transportation waiting for us. The Elders have set up lives for us on this planet. We are to go to a place called the Foundation. It’s run by another team from our world. There is where we’ll learn about the human culture before we venture out into the world for ourselves,” he explained as he grabbed a bag of clean clothes someone had placed on a bench.

He grabbed some for himself, let her grab some clothes, then dropped the bag and they both ran to a waiting taxi nearby.

“When we are ready, we will be given a list of humans to watch. If one interests us enough, we take them back to our world and study them further,” he said.

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